snakehead

plural snakeheads

1. biologyA family of perciform fish native to Africa and Asia, Channidae.

   Through this plantation ran a creek full of snakeheads and eels, its overflow swelling the swamp around it.

   2015, Eka Kurniawan, translated by Labodalih Sembiring, Man Tiger, Verso, page 1

2. slangA Chinese smuggler, especially one who smuggles people.

   Why would they want to run? -- To get away from the snakeheads. -- What's that? -- The snakeheads pay to get them here and then they gotta work off what they owe.

   2008, Frozen River, 00:33:10

   1 more example

   […] but snakeheads involved in air smuggling may venture into sea smuggling. A thirty-two-year-old housewife from Fuzhou who left China by boat alleged that her snakehead was involved in both.

   2011, David Kyle, Rey Koslowski, Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives, page 190

3. USderogatoryethnicslangslurA black person.
4. A showy perennial plant, Chelone glabra, found in North American marshlands; the turtlehead
5. USrail transportA loose, bent-up end of one of the strap rails, or flat rails, formerly used on American railroads.
6. alternativerareAlternative form of snake's head, various not closely related species of flowering plant, including Fritillaria meleagris.